The Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation provides critical perspectives on topics relevant to Information Systems Evaluation, with an emphasis on the organisational and management implications

Abstract

Abstract: This paper looks at issues in Information Technology (IT) outsourcing in public sector local government in the UK, to determine how successful they have been and to establish any best practice. This is important because, whilst outsourcing has
become a significant issue in the restructuring of organisations and is increasingly used within both the private and public sectors, there has been a lack of research into IT outsourcing in the public sector and particularly within local government. Thi
s paper provides an in‑depth study into how outsourcing is managed in local councils and how successful it has been; especially considering its sometimes controversial nature and the mixed press results it receives. This paper focuses in particular on an
analysis of the risks of IT outsourcing and the management of the outsourcing contract. The research shows that a thorough risk assessment must be completed before an outsourcing contract is agreed. Local government tends to adopt a very cautious approach
to outsourcing based on risk minimisation. Hidden costs are one of the greatest risks when outsourcing. Hidden costs occur in selection, managing the contract, and making changes to the contract, all of which can offset any cost savings identified at the
start of the outsourcing contract. The research shows that local councils recognise the importance of the contract and that it has the largest single impact on the success or failure of the outsourcing agreement. Having a well written contract is necessa
ry to minimise the risks posed by outsourcing. However, the local government bodies recognised that it is impossible to cover every detail in the contract, particularly where needs are fluctuating, and that an element of trust is required to manage the co
ntract successfully. The research suggests that contracts need to be strict enough to motivate the provider but should be realistic and achievable so that they do not inhibit the development of a working relationship. The paper also addresses issues in th
e selection of outsourcing providers and more recent developments since the new UK governments austerity programme The study concludes that, whilst councils recognise that both the contract and trust are important to ensure that outsourcing is successful
, the culture of risk aversion in the public sector tends to lead to a play it safe mentality resulting in an overemphasis on the contract. This can lead to a short‑term focus that could make it difficult for the council and the provider to work togethe
r to meet long‑term goals. The councils were generally skeptical of developing partnerships; however, the research reveals that councils who focused predominantly on the contract were less successful than those who developed partnerships with their provid
ers. The authors therefore recommend that, in order to achieve greater success, councils should develop partnerships and focus on best value and long‑term strategic goals when outsourcing IT.

Abstract

: With the Internet of Things (IoT) being a new research area, the work that is going on worldwide in this field is disjoint. The picture is not clear on who is doing what and where, thus making it difficult not only for newcomers into this field to define their space and also engage with potential collaboration partners, but also for the relatively established researchers as well to gain the necessary support in their work. There is a massive increase in the amount of data that is generated globally. This data is traditionally generated by a number of different autonomous devices. The IoT is about interfacing these autonomous devices to communicate without human intervention and generate integrated data. Intelligence is then required to process this integrated data and make it available to the humans for decision‑making. If advantage is to be taken of IoT technologies, the need therefore arises to gain sufficient information that will be an impetus to further research on IoT and open the way to collaborations among the various researchers. This paper documents the international research that is going on in the area of IoT. It shows the main role players and the research territory they operate in. It also documents future research trends. The question that this research answers therefore is, “Who are the main role players in IoT research internationally, in which research space do they operate and how their work is shaping the future of IoT research?” The research is a qualitative study. A number of IoT conferences that have been held since 2008 when the first IoT conference was held in Zurich, Switzerland were identified. From the conference programs, contact details of individuals who had submitted papers or participated were identified. Emails were sent to the various stakeholders requesting information on their institutions, areas of application of IoT research and projects they were working on. Responses received also pointed to websites and publications which were then sampled to extract the relevant information. Preliminary results show that the European Union leads the pack in IoT research. Also, worldwide, institutions tend to specialise in particular aspects of IoT. Predominantly, it is the universities that are involved in IoT research as opposed to private sector institutions. Iot Research is a multidisciplinary field.

Abstract

SNS offer many benefits, especially for the youth who are striving to establish their identity as young adults. The youth are the most active users of SNS but are also the biggest perpetrators of behaviour that would not be tolerated offline. Although differences between these two environments have been identified, the link between the underlying behavioural norms and what is regarded as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour online has not been comprehensively explored – even less so how that behaviour is determined. Given the gap in the knowledge and the prevalence of use by the youth, the objectives of this research were to determine: (1) what behaviour is regarded as acceptable/unacceptable on SNS, (2) how that is determined, and (3) whether there are differences between online behavioural norms and those that apply to offline behaviour. Guided by social cognitive theory, qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 youth aged 18‑20 years who had Facebook accounts.
Findings indicate there is greater clarity on what is unacceptable behaviour than what is acceptable. Personal behavioural norms appear to guide determination of unacceptable behaviour whereas the lead of others’ indicates acceptable behaviour. Acceptable behaviour appears to be more audience dependent than unacceptable behaviour, and there sre strong indications of herding behaviour with regard to determination of acceptable norms.
The lack of clarity regarding acceptable online behavioural norms is distinctly different from the offline environment. The “protection” that the computer screen provides also contributes to the differences between offline and online behaviour. The distinction between types of friends that exists offline is emphasized online because users usually have one Facebook page that serves all audiences as opposed to encountering different groups separately as is the case offline. Online there is also the obligation to befriend people one normally would avoid offline.

Abstract

The present study qualitatively assesses Internet users' experiences of cultural changes. The type of method is phenomenological. Research participants were 14 university students from Khorasgan Islamic Azad University with intensity case sampling. The subjects were introduced by the administrator of the Internet site. Data collection was conducted by a semi‑structured interview and data were analyzed by Colaizzi 7‑step method. Total findings of this study after excluding common codes, including 236 concept codes that represented the experiences of participants in this study, were classified in three main themes as follows: 1 ‑ Change of Values such as Opinions, Beliefs and Morality (" Change of Beliefs " and " Lack of the Observation of Moral Laws ") 2 ‑ Norm Change ( "Life Style Changing" that come from Change of Tasks Doing Way, Change of Communication Way, Accelerate of knowledge exchanging and Social Participation Changing and " Change of Identity "that come from False Freedom and Corruption, Distrust, Social Change and Change of Wearing Mode ) and 3 ‑ A Change in Verbal Symbols (" Influence of English Words in Farsi "and" Getting Loan Terms from the Internet " ). These findings indicate that students have acquired a lot of positive and negative experiences while using the Internet which have affected the norms, ideas, beliefs, ethics and verbal symbols showing cultural changes in the society which mostly affect the young.

Abstract

The conduct of IT/IS evaluation and its associated approaches, techniques and methods have been the subject of IS research for many years, particularly in the last two decades. This paper reflects on the body of knowledge which has emerged over the past twenty‑five years in order to identify where research efforts are focussed, what are the important issues in IT/IS evaluation research, and where future research efforts should be placed. This study presents a descriptive analysis of research on IT/IS evaluation over the last 25 five years, from 1986 to 2010, in five leading IS journals In total, 176 papers related to IT/IS evaluation are identified and reviewed in this study. Based on the Context, Content and Process model, IT/IS evaluation can be broken down to five interrelated elements: why evaluation is carried out, what is evaluated,whenwhen evaluation takes place, how evaluation is performed and who is involved in evaluation. Each of these elements are identified and classified in the sample research articles and based on this analysis, we propose a new perspective for classifying IT/IS evaluation approaches.